Clik here to view.
Basement fusion reactor
Do you ever wonder what projects your neighbors have going on in their basements? [Will Jack's] neighbors might be surprised to find he’s building a fusion reactor. The first step toward completing a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fusion, in my backyard?!
Here is the 32nd amateur fusion reactor built in a basement. [Mark Suppes] is right behind [Will Jack], the (then) 17 year old [Thiago Olson], and [Mileiux] in engineering a homemade nuclear reactor....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Transmitting power and data through thick metal enclosures
So let’s say you have a submarine, or a nuclear containment chamber which has walls made of thick metal. Now let’s say you want to transmit power or data through this wall. Obviously you’re not going...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The DIY Nuclear Reactor
“Wednesday, I was arrested and sent to jail,” is what your blog might say if you decide to try and duplicate this project. You may, however, be fortunate to be still writing your blog, as ATTEMPTING...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Fukushima Robot Diaries
After the terrible tragedy in Fukushima, the cleanup and damage assessment has begun. A robot operator, known only as [S.H.] has decided to write a blog about their efforts. As pictured above, they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Retrotechtacular: Breaking Atoms to Break the Ice
This documentary from 1959 gives a satisfyingly thorough look inside a nuclear powered icebreaking ship called Lenin. This actually set a couple of world’s-firsts: it was the first nuclear powered...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Making the Case For Nuclear Aircraft
At any given moment, several of the US Navy’s Nimitz class aircraft carriers are sailing the world’s oceans. Weighing in at 90 thousand tons, these massive vessels need a lot of power to get moving....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lise Meitner: A Physicist who Never Lost her Humanity
It is said that the first casualty of war is the truth, and few wars have demonstrated that more than World War II. One scientist, whose insights would make the atomic age possible, would learn a harsh...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lego Nuclear Reactor Uses Arduino
Before the NSA deletes this post, we’ll be clear: We’re talking about a model of a nuclear reactor, not the real thing. Using Legos, [wgurecky] built a point kinetic reactor model that interfaces with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Retrotechtacular: Head Start On Tomorrow
In the 1950s and 1960s, the prospects for a future powered by nuclear energy were bright. There had been accidents at nuclear reactors, but they had not penetrated the public consciousness, or had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Retrotechtacular: [Walt] Builds A Family Fallout Shelter
In the 1950s it seemed likely that the Cold War could at any minute take a turn for the worse, and we might all be consumed in the fiery conflagration of nuclear war. Fortunately neither the leaders on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Soviet Era Smoke Detector Torn Down, Revealing Plutonium
It’s widely known that a smoke detector is a good ionizing radiation source, as they contain a small amount of americium-241, a side product of nuclear reactors. But what about other sources? [Carl...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Low Background Steel — So Hot Right Now
The nuclear age changed steel, and for decades we had to pay the price for it. The first tests of the atomic bomb were a milestone in many ways, and have left a mark in history and in the surface of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Brief History of Radioactivity
More than one hundred years ago, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium emitted penetrating rays similar to those used by Wilhelm Röntgen to take the first X-ray image (of his wife’s hand), starting a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Low-Power Can You Go?
[lasersaber] has a passion: low-power motors. In a bid to challenge himself and inspired by betavoltaic cells, he has 3D printed and built a small nuclear powered motor! This photovoltaic battery uses...
View ArticleClik here to view.
34C3: Vintage Verification, Stop Nuclear War With A 6502
Our better-traveled colleagues having provided ample coverage of the 34C3 event in Leipzig just after Christmas, it is left to the rest of us to pick over the carcass as though it was the last remnant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Project Orion: Detonating Nuclear Bombs For Thrust
Rockets with nuclear bombs for propulsion sounds like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, but it has been seriously considered as an option for the space program. Chemical rockets combust a fuel with an oxidizer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fail of the Week: A Candle Caused Browns Ferry Nuclear Incident
A colleague of mine used to say he juggled a lot of balls; steel balls, plastic balls, glass balls, and paper balls. The trick was not to drop the glass balls. How do you know which is which? For...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Atomic Power Gets Small
There was a time when nuclear power plants were going to save the world. Barring accidents, the plants are clean and generate a lot of power. However, a few high-profile accidents and increased public...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hacking Shelters and Swimming Pools
How would you survive in a war-torn country, where bombs could potentially fall from the sky with only very short notice? And what if the bomb in question were The Bomb — a nuclear weapon? This concern...
View Article
